San Francisco | In-Person

How Are Immigrants Changing Our Definition of Health?

Photo by John J. Kim/Associated Press.

A Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation Event
Moderated by Elizabeth Aguilera, Health and Welfare Reporter, CALmatters

Health involves both measures, like taking our blood pressure, and perceptions—the ideas we hold in our heads about what it means to be healthy. As California attracted a more diverse cross section of people from around the world, those ideas began to change, and once-risky enterprises—from acupuncture to eating very spicy foods or drinking a glass of wine every day—are now recognized as paths to wellness. How have immigrants and their families influenced the way we understand health? What lessons are we learning—about everything from birthing to diet to meditation—from global Californians? And what is the connection between immigration and today’s greater emphasis on a holistic sense of health, which includes the quality of our relationships with neighbors and family? Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA School of Medicine David Hayes-Bautista, journalist and author of The Immigrant Advantage Claudia Kolker, and UCLA medical anthropologist Marjorie Kagawa-Singer visit Zócalo to examine how Californians now understand wellness.

LOCATION:
Mechanics’ Institute
57 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
Paid parking is available. Parking map is available here.

The Takeaway

The Healthiest Californians Are the Ones Who Are Healthy Together

Immigrants Live Longer and Better Than the Native Born Because Community Heals in Ways Medicine Does Not

Immigrants bring cultural practices that could improve our health systems and the health of all Californians—if we do more to understand and deploy the advantages of cultural diversity, said a …